The Law: The Black Hole of Manhattan

The word that sums up conditions at New York's most infamous jail is
precisely the one that Chief Justice Burger used: "miserly." Known
appropriately enough as the Tombs, the Manhattan House of Detention for
Men is stuffed with close to 2,000 prisoners; it is a dank fortress
built to hold 932 at most. Last week, as if to dramatize the Chief
Justice's appeal for penal reform, 800 Tombs prisoners erupted in a
window-smashing, furniture-throwing, bed-sheet-burning display of
frustration brought on by inhumane conditions and the apparent
indifference of the outside world.